Let's talk Puppetry Arcana:
What could combo with Puppetry and has a hidden talent that matches? Yep, you guessed it, Construct Alchemy (Puppetry + Construct == "Puppetmancer").
What would the primary weapon be, cylinders or control bars? If we save cylinders for a battle alch arcana, I say let's use control bars for puppetry arcana. Gives the bars some scaling/longevity.
You will get a true tank talent with puppets/construct hybrid. Remember how we have a Morfy puppet for revenant-tier Pierrot but nothing for colossus?
Option A.) Mutated Talek as Colossus
This could be mutated Talek's time to shine as Colossus. Bring him out using an arcana construct summon skill (scaled off colossus rank + golem), give puppetry a cumulative dmg+magic dmg/prot debuff with a temporary melee cancel + bleed set of effects with a barbed wire AoE skill (scaled off Puppet's Snare + Barrier Spikes), give them a sulfuric severance attack (scaled off Hydra + Threshold) with maybe poison, add in a puppetry resurrection skill w/ certain stat bonuses % recovery (scales off Invigorating Encore), add in another flashy damage skill or two, bring one in incorporating mana crystallization or metal conversion for tanking, allow him to become a tenacious taunt recipient, and bang, construct puppetry arcana.
Option B.) Biped Claimh Solas as Colossus
We could conversely transmute up a
slightly larger than current colossus Claimh Solas with legs.
You can imagine using its wings to fly high-up briefly and crash land down (scales with Climatic Crash)
Homing aerial swords (scales with Threshold Cutter)
Use puppetry skills
Some of the attack/debuff/tank skills from the above, etc.
Option C.) We Transmogrify as Colossus
(yep, our own HP, MP, Stam on the line but made tankier w/ colossus rank scaling) but bound by puppetry and the above arcana skills.
IDK I actually like a hybrid of this idea with being able to fly high vertically and downward spike the ground. Sounds fun lol
Any of these ideas could be amazing/terrible, but will require of course refinement and testing to actually perfect and balance. Some of the content might potentially be cool at least. Some limits that could be imposed: a timed-use limit, bonus stats being temporary for option C (like vital surge), un-timeshiftable skills (like pall of ruination), etc. Anything's possible really.
As always, let me know your thoughts
Comments
"give puppetry a cumulative dmg+magic dmg/prot/bleed dps debuff set of effects with a barbed wire AoE skill"
Puppetry needs more though imo. The damage/magic-damage debuff would focus on dampening enemies attacks as opposed to just "I'll make them weaker magic prot-wise". Hydra range also admittedly isn't that amazing nor that potent damage-wise imo later game, but getting hit by something of a "bleed" would stick with enemies longer as opposed to "I'm leaving your stationary hydra range, now I'm fine". It does not obsolete Hydra per se as Hydra is being fed into the Arcana, just makes similar effects more useful.
I still no less like the multiple possibilities of Construct + Puppetry, given golem was nerfed but the two talents seem like an okay match lore/technical wise